


The Journal of Sadie Winchester

by timewornButterfly



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Supernatural Elements, Winchester Sister
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-08-17 08:03:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16512440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timewornButterfly/pseuds/timewornButterfly
Summary: What if the Winchester's had a little sister to watch out for on top of looking out for the world? 11 year old Sadie Winchester as spent her entire life on the road hunting monsters and nightmares. For her, everything was going well. Until her father went missing. Along with her two brothers, Sadie hopes to find answers about her father, her family and herself.





	1. 1.01 Pilot

It had been Sadie Winchester’s third day in New Orleans. Her older brother, Dean had been working a voodoo case, while she of course waited in the motel room like always. Normally, she would be travelling with her dad, too. While she was 11, and felt capable of at least holding her own on hunts, her father always liked having someone watch over her. A few months back however, she was able to convince him she would be fine alone with Dean watching out with her on cases. What she didn’t expect was Dean to be stricter than her father. He had specific instructions that she could help when it came to research, and talking to victims, but was not allowed to be brought into the dangerous parts. She, of course, did not listen. Every chance she got, Sadie snuck out to join in on the action. This time, however, Dean threatened to send her back to Dad if she was caught out when she wasn’t supposed to. She put up a fight, but it was futile.  
She fell asleep before her brother got home that night. For the third day, she had the same dream. She stands in an apartment. It was dark, and silent. The only thing she could hear was the sound of something dripping next to her. Looking down, there was a puddle of something dark on the floor. Following her eyes up, a body hung over her on the ceiling, bleeding from the stomach. She would scream without sound. The body lit up suddenly, catching fire quickly. She could feel the heat rise around her. The last thing she heard was a scream from behind her. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Sadie!” Someone was slightly shaking me.  
“Mmm… Dean?”  
“Yeah, kid, it’s me. You get a call from Dad while I was out?”  
“No, nothing,” I shook her head.  
Dean stood, with a look of concern on his face.  
“Dean, what’s wrong?”  
He sighed, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Listen to this,”  
He pressed a button, “Dean… something big is starting to happen… I need to try and figure out what’s going on. It may… Be very careful, Dean. Watch out for Sadie. We’re all in danger,”  
I looked up to my brother, “Dad’s in trouble? We’re in danger? I don’t understand…”  
“I know, I know. Pack your crap,”  
“Where are we going?” I asked, jumping out of bed.  
“Stanford,” 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tapped my hand nervously on the side of the car as we drove down the road. Stanford. Sam. It had been about two years since I had heard from my other brother. A small part of me was excited to see Sam again. I had gotten better at hunting, I had grown taller, but there was another part of me that was angry. Two years, and I hadn’t heard anything from him. Unanswered phones calls, letters, nothing. If Dad hadn’t insisted on checking up whenever we were in the area, I wouldn’t even know if he was alive. A part of me didn’t want to see Sam again.  
I picked up my brother’s phone and listened to the voicemail again.  
“You know, I think there’s EVP on this,” I pointed out.  
Dean glanced me. “You think?”  
“Yeah, if you take out the hiss, there’s something underneath,”  
Dean nodded proudly, “Good work, kid. We should give you a raise,”  
“We don’t get paid,”  
“You don’t get paid,”  
“In that case, I want my raise in candy, please,”  
Dean laughed, “You got it,”  
I smiled, but quickly fell when I saw how close we were getting. I pulled a tiny journal from my backpack. I opened up to my latest page, which had record of mine and Dean’s latest case. It also had the doodle of the girl from my dreams. I tried picturing her normally. It was difficult, even in my dream, her face was there for a moment before burning.  
As I worked in my book I asked, “Are you nervous to see Sammy again?”  
“Of course not,” Dean said with false confidence.  
“What if he doesn’t want to help?”  
“He’ll help, Sadie. He will,”  
We drove on for thirty minutes. I played with the phone and a tape recorder before Dean pulled up in front of an apartment complex. By that time, the sun had set, and a deep darkness had swallowed the area. I was surprised when Dean got out of the car.  
I ran after him, “Shouldn’t we wait until morning? Or call?”  
“Nah, it’s more fun. Test his reflexes,” Dean smiled at me, as he jimmied his way into the window. “Ladies, first,” I sighed as Dean helped me through the window. Dean came through next, kicking the wall.  
“Dean!” I whispered.  
“Whoops,” Dean looked around the apartment, “Well, isn’t this picture perfect,”  
I agreed. It was decorated in a Sam fashion. It was comfortable, it felt safe. In the darkness I could make out pictures of Sam and other people I didn’t recognize. I followed Dean into a room. It was there I noticed two other pictures. One had my father, John, and their mother, Mary. I didn’t see many pictures of Mary, but in this one, she looked really happy. The other one was the three of us. It was right before Sam left. I wore a goofy smile on her face, and my brothers wore matching happy expressions. I was so entranced by the memories, I didn’t see the man in the hallway. I only turned when I heard the sound of Dean grunt. Dean grabbed the man’s arm and pushed him back. The man tried to block, but Dean pushed him backward into the other room. I trailed behind looking down at Sam and Dean laying on the floor. Dean had him pinned to the floor.  
“Whoa, easy, tiger,” Dean said.  
Sam breathed hard, “Dean?” He looked over to me standing in the doorway, “Sadie?”  
Dean laughed.  
“You scared the crap out of me!”  
“That’s cause you’re out of practice,”  
Without warning, Sam grabbed Dean’s hand and switched the tables, so Dean was the one pinned to the ground.  
“Or not,” Dean commented, causing me to laugh.  
“Get off me,”  
Sam smirked as he got up, and then pulled Dean up.  
“What the hell are you two doing here?”  
“Good to see you, too, Sammy,” I remarked quietly.  
Sam turned to me about to say something, but Dean interrupted with, “I was looking for a beer,”  
“Seriously?” Sam asked, probing for the real answer.  
“Okay. All right. We gotta talk,”  
“Uh, the phone?”  
“You never answer,” I commented. “I’ve got your voicemail message memorized,”  
The lights flipped on. “Sam,” A woman’s voice called.  
The three of us turned our heads to look at her. A tall blonde was standing in the hallway, wearing shorts, and a low cut Smurfs t-shirt. It was clear she had just woken up.  
“Jess. Hey. Dean, Sadie, this is my girlfriend, Jessica,”  
I cocked an eyebrow. Something about her seemed familiar.  
“Like your brother and sister?”  
Sam nodded. Dean grinned and moved a bit closer.  
“Oh, I love the Smurfs. You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother’s league,”  
I pretended to gag quietly.  
“Just let me put something on,” Jess said, turning to go.  
“No, no, no. I wouldn’t dream of it. Seriously.” Dean insisted.  
“Oh, my God,” I whispered to Dean.  
He tightly squeezed my shoulder. Dean turned back to Sam, keeping one eye on Jess.  
“Anyway, we gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about private family business. But, uh, nice meeting you,”  
“No,” Sam said, walking over to Jess, “Whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her,”  
I glanced up to Dean, worried.  
“Okay,” He took a breath, “Dad hasn’t been home in a few days,”  
“So he’s working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He’ll stumble back in sooner or later,”  
Dean looked down at me, and shook his head. He met Sam’s eye again, “Dad’s on a hunting trip. And he hasn’t been home in a few days,”  
Sam paused, “Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside,” 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean sent me back to the car while he waited for Sam. I leaned against the driver side door, watching for my brothers. I heard them before I saw them.  
“The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors. And the same thing is happening to Sadie!”  
“So, what? We’re supposed to live some normal life? You’re going to live an apple pie life? Is that it?”  
“No. Not normal. Safe.”  
“And that’s why you ran away,” Dean looked away and started heading to the car.  
“I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that’s what I’m doing,”  
I remembered that fight. Sam stormed outside with a bag, and I ran out after him. He was angry, but scared.  
“Sam! Sam, where are you going?”  
He tried to hide his feelings from me, and smiled. I was too young to see the fear, pain and anger he carried on him.  
“I have to go away for a while, Sadie. It’s alright, go back inside,"  
I remembered how quickly the tears came back. I didn't get why it couldn't be easy for Sam to go back inside and keep going with our lives. “But, why can’t you stay? I want you to stay, Sam!”  
“I can’t, Sadie. Not anymore. I promise, this won’t change anything. We’ll still talk, and we can see each other whenever we can,” He ruffled my hair. “Go back inside, I’ll talk to you soon,”  
It was the last I heard from Sam. He ran away. I went back inside, and didn’t speak to anyone. I didn’t speak for months. Dean was the only one who could get me to speak. He didn’t leave me, or give up on me. When Dean looked back at Sam, I could see his longing for him to come.  
“Dad’s in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it,”  
Sam didn’t answer.  
“We can’t do this by ourselves,”  
“Yes you can,”  
“Yeah, well I don’t want to,”  
Sam sighed, and looked between me and Dean. Whatever feelings I had about Sam, I knew we needed him. Dean needed him. Even for just a bit.  
“What was he hunting?” Sam asked.  
Dean opened the trunk of the Impala, and into the spare tire compartment. For as long as I could remember, there had never been a spare tire in there. It had also been the arsenal for me. Dean propped it open with a shotgun.  
“All right, let’s see, where the hell did I put that thing?” Dean muttered, digging through the clutter.  
“So when Dad left, why didn’t you two go with him?”  
“I was working my own gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans. Dad let me bring Sadie along,”  
“By yourself?”  
Dean looked over at Sam, “I’m twenty-six, dude,” He opened a folder and handed some papers to Sam.  
“So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy-” Dean pointed to man on top of the papers, “They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA,”  
“So maybe he was kidnapped,”  
“Look underneath,” I said, “Another one in April, December, in ‘04, 03, ‘98, ‘92, they just keep going over the past 20 years,”  
“All men, all the same five mile stretch of road. It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn’t heard from him since, which is bad enough,”  
I handed him her tape recorder.  
“We got this voicemail yesterday,”  
Dean pressed play and the voicemail played through again. It filled her with the same fear it did beforehand.  
“You know there’s EVP on that?”  
“Sadie pointed it out,” He turned to me, “You better watch out, kid, you might be getting replaced,”  
I crossed my arms. I knew he meant it as a joke, but I was not a fan of being continuously left in the motel. And to be replaced by Sam, who’s been out for two years felt insulting.  
“Alright, listen to it now,”  
Dean pressed play again, and this time the woman’s voice came over, “I can never go home,”  
“Never go home,” Sam repeated.  
Dean threw everything into the trunk, and closed it.  
“You know, in almost two years I’ve never bothered you, never asked you for a thing,”  
Sam sighed and looked back home, “All right. I’ll go. I’ll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here,”  
“What’s first thing Monday?” Dean called as Sam walked back toward the apartment.  
“I have this… I have an interview,”  
“What, a job interview? Skip it,”  
“It’s a law school interview, and it’s my whole future on a plate,”  
“Law school?” Dean questioned with a smirk.  
“So we got a deal or not,” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tapped against Dean’s seat. With Sam coming, I was back to my usual seat.  
“Sadie,” Dean called eventually, staring back at me.  
“Sorry,” I crossed my arms, “It’s just… is this a good idea? I mean, maybe we can find Dad without Sam,”  
“Of course this is a good idea, Sadie,”  
“It’s just.. He’s got this perfect painted life, Dean. He doesn’t need us,”  
Dean scoffed, “He doesn’t know what he needs,”  
Sam walked back out carrying his duffel in hand.  
“He needs this,” Dean said quietly, sounding like his was trying to convince himself more than me.  
It wasn’t long before we were on the road again, this time toward Jericho. It didn’t take long for me to bundle my jacket into a pillow and fall asleep in the backseat.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up to Ramblin’ Man blasting, momentarily forgetting what happened last night. That is, until I saw Sam sitting in the front seat, flipping through Dean’s tapes.  
“Hey!” I heard Dean call from outside.  
I glanced out. We were sitting in some convenience mart. Dean was holding up bags of chips, and three granola bars.  
“Breakfast?” He asked.  
“No, thanks,” Sam answered.  
I reached my hand out the window. Dean put a granola bar and apple juice in my hand.  
I glanced at the granola, “Raisins?”  
“Chocolate chips are for lunch,”  
I carefully pulled back the wrapper and munched on the bar.  
“So how’d you pay for that stuff?” Sam asked “You and Dad still running credit card scams?”  
“Yeah, well, hunting ain’t exactly a pro ball career. Besides, all we do is apply. It’s not our fault they send us the card,”  
“Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?” Sam asked as closed his door.  
“Uh, Burt Aframian,” Dean answered as he got into the driver's seat, “And his son Hector, Scored two cards out of the deal,”  
“That sounds about right. I swear man, you’ve gotta update your cassette tape collection,”  
“Why?”  
“Well, for one, they’re cassette tapes, and two,” Sam held up a few, “Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica?” Dean took the Metallica tape. “It’s the greatest hits of mullet rock,”  
“Well Sadie and I like it. And driver gets to pick the music. Shotgun shuts his cakehole, Sammy”  
I giggled as Dean returned Metallica to it’s rightful, and picked out another tape.  
“You know, Sammy is a chubby 12 year old. It’s Sam, okay?”  
Dean turned AC/DC up. “Sorry, I can’t hear you, the music’s too loud,” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam didn’t waste time putting in phone calls to the hospitals, morgues, anywhere he could be stuck.  
“All right,” Sam began, hanging up his tenth phone call, “So there’s no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue. So that’s something, I guess,”  
“Guys, look,” I pointed ahead, In front of us,, a bridge was closed off surrounded by officers and cars.  
“Good eye, Sadie,”  
Dean pulled the car over, and opened the glove box and started rifling through the bin of fake IDs. Sam stared as Dean pulled one out. He turned back to me, “Wait here,”  
“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed.  
I watched Sam and Dean walk over to the bridge toward the cops. They acted like they belonged, Dean flashed his badge with quickly with authority. They spoke with the cops for a few minutes before they turned back to the car. I could see a hint of annoyance on Dean’s face and once they got far enough, Dean smacked Sam over the head. I could heard Sam’s “Ow!”  
They argued for a moment, before two suits approached them, and questioned them. I held my breath, but they were let go without question.  
Before either could sit down, I asked, “So what’s going on,”  
“Well, there is definitely a case here. Another one’s gone missing. We just gotta find one’s taking them.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, Dean drove us into town. He let me come with them, since they weren’t playing cop anymore. I didn’t know exactly what we were looking, but I was happy to finally be out of the car. We walked for a bit, but finally stopped when Sam pointed out a young woman hanging up flyers. I could make out “Missing: Troy Squire”. I didn’t recognize the name from any of the missing reports they found. I assumed it was the latest person from the car on the bridge.  
“I’ll bet you that’s her,” Dean commented.  
I followed as we walked up to her.  
“You must be Amy,”  
“Yeah,”  
“Yeah, Troy told us about you. We’re his uncles, I’m Dean and this is Sammy. And this is his cousin, Sadie,”  
“He never mentioned you to me,”  
She began walking away, but the three of us followed.  
“Well, that’s Troy, I guess,” Dean continued, “We’re not around much, we’re up in Modesto,”  
“So, we’re looking for him too,” Sam said, “and we’re kinda asking around,”  
Another girl Amy’s age came up to her and put a hand on her arm, “Hey are you okay?”  
“Yeah,”  
“You mind if we ask you a couple questions?” Sam asked.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amy, and the other girl Rachel brought us to a nearby diner. I was squished in between Sam and Dean.  
“I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving,” Amy explained. “He said he would call me right back, and… he never did,”  
“He didn’t say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?”  
Amy shook her head, “No. Nothing I can remember,”  
“I like your necklace,” I said out of blue.  
Amy touched the pendant shaped like a pentagram on her neck, “Thanks. Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents-” She laughed, “with all that devil stuff,”  
“Actually, it means just the opposite. A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing,” Sam said  
I couldn’t help but chuckle. I missed that about Sam. Geekiness was one of the things we had in common.  
“Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries.” Dean leaned forward,” Here’s the deal ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something’s not right. So if you’ve heard anything…”  
The two girls glanced at each other.  
“What is it?  
“Well, it’s just… I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk,”  
“What do they talk about?” Dean and Sam asked at the same time.  
“It’s kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago. Well, supposedly she’s still out there,”  
Sam nodded.  
“She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever,” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was Sam’s idea to go to the library. With ghosts and spirits like this, there’s always a newsworthy tragic story behind it. In the back of the library, there was a row of computers which Dean immediately sat in front of. He opened the archive for the Jericho Herald and began searching for terms like “Female Murder Hitchhiker”. When that got no results, he tried replacing Centennial Highway with the same response.  
“Let me try,” Sam spoke up, reaching over.  
Dean smacked his hand, “I got it,”  
Sam pulled Dean’s chair away from the computer.  
“Dude!” Dean said as I laughed.  
Dean rolled back and hit Sam’s shoulder, “You are such a control freak,”  
“So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?”  
“Yeah,” Dean agreed.  
“Well, maybe it’s not murder,” Sam replaced the word “murder” with “suicide”. There was one result for a suicide on the Centennial Highway.  
Sam scanned it quickly, “This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river,”  
I peered over his shoulder, “Does it say why?”  
“Yeah. An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minutes, and when she comes back, they aren’t breathing. Both die. ‘Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn’t bear it,’ said husband Joseph Welch,”  
Dean pointed to the picture on the screen, “The bridge look familiar to you?”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Without the murder/abduction scene, looking down over the water made the bridge seem more pretty and peaceful. I could hear the water rushing beneath us, and the wind blowing across the bridge.  
Dean glanced over the side, “So this is where Constance took the swan dive,”  
“So you think Dad would have been here?” Sam asked, looking at Dean.  
“Well, he’s chasing the same story and we’re chasing him,” Dean said, walking across the bridge.  
“Okay, so now what?” Sam asked.  
“Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while,”  
“Dean, I told you, I’ve gotta get back by Monday-”  
“Monday. Right. The interview,”  
“Yeah,”  
“Yeah, I forgot. You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? You think you’re just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?”  
“Maybe. Why not?”  
“Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you’ve done?”  
Sam took a step closer, “No, and she’s not ever going to know,”  
“Well that’s healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you’re going to have to face to who you really are,”  
“And who’s that?”  
“You’re one of us,” Dean said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I stepped to the side, not wanting to be dragged into their argument.  
“No, I’m not like you. This is not going to be my life, and it shouldn’t be Sadie’s either!”  
“We have a responsibility to-”  
“To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren’t for pictures I wouldn’t even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back,”  
Dean suddenly grabbed Sam’s collar and shoved him against the railing of the bridge.  
“Dean,” I gasped, backing away from their argument.  
“Don’t talk about her like that,” Dean warned.  
As I watched this scene unfold in front of me, I caught the glimpse of something in the corner of my eye. When I turned, I noticed a woman in white standing on the railing of the bridge a few feet from us, staring at me.  
“Guys…” I said, pointing forward.  
Both Sam and Dean turned and looked at her. When they began to run to her, she jumped over the side.  
“Where’d she go?” Dean asked.  
“I don’t know,” Sam replied.  
Suddenly, the Impala came to life, headlights beaming at us.  
“What the-”  
“Who’s driving the car?” I asked.  
Dean slowly reached into his pocket and pulled his keys showing them to both of us.  
The car jerked into motion and began speeding toward us.  
“Run!” Sam yelled, “Go! Go!”  
Sam grabbed my hand pulling me along the bridge as the three of us ran from the car. I could hear it getting closer and closer, and the heat of the headlights creeping up. It was about to hit us, I could feel it, when suddenly I was pulled off the bridge and over went over the side.  
I closed my eyes and waited for impact.  
But I wasn’t falling anymore.  
I looked up to see Sam holding me by the back of sweatshirt. I was breathing heavy, and looked down at the water below, “Holy cow…” I commented.  
“Sadie, grab on to my leg, and hold tight,” He ordered.  
I latched on, not wanting to fall into the dark, cold water below. Hanging over it, the sight didn’t seem as pretty anymore.  
Sam was able to pull us both up over the edge of the bridge. I immediately turned and watched over the side, “Do you see Dean?”  
“No… Dean? Dean!” Sam yelled.  
As we called down, I pointed out a muddy figure crawling out of the side of the river.  
“What?” Dean called back annoyed.  
“Are you all right?”  
I made out an A-Ok sign, “I’m super,”  
Sam and I laughed relieved, and went around the side to meet Dean. Dean came crawling up the side and back to the Impala. He was covered head to toe in smelly mud. He went right to the hood of the Impala and opened her up.  
“Your car all right?” Sam asked as Dean inspected it.  
“Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now,” he shut the hood, “That Constance chick, what a bitch!”  
“Well, she doesn’t want us digging around, that’s for sure. So where’s the job go from her genius?”  
Dean threw his arms up in frustration, flicking mud of his hands.  
“Ugh, you smell like toilet,” I commented, getting a look from Dean. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before Dean was able to shower, we had to find a motel to get a room. It was humorous to watch the clerk’s expression as Dean walked in trying to buy a room. The clerk made a face as he picked up Dean’s card, which when from disgust to surprise.  
“You guys having a reunion or something?”  
“What do you mean?” Sam asked.  
“I had another guy, Burt Aframian. He came and bought out a room for the whole month,” 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Here, you try,” Dean said, handing me a lock pick.  
I raised an eyebrow, “Why?”  
Dean shrugged, “Gotta learn sometime. And it’s one of the safer things I can teach you,”  
I bent down and started working on the lock.  
“No,” Dean said from behind her, move it that way. No left. Left, Sadie,”  
“Dean!” I snapped. “Stop backseat lock picking!”  
“Alright, alright, you almost had it come on,”  
It took a few extra minutes, but Dean was right. I did have it. The door creaked open and Sam and I walked in. Dean stood outside, looking for anymore oncomers before Sam pulled him inside. I looked around the room. Every inch of the room had some sort of paper pinned to it. Books, and junk covered the tables, and the floor.  
“Um, woah,” I commented, stepping over a salt line.  
Sam looked at some of the objects on the table, “Salt, cats-eye shells… he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in,”  
Dean examined the papers covering the wall.  
“What have you got there,” Sam asked.  
“Centennial Highway victims,”  
Sam nodded. I recognized some of the names from missing persons flyers Dean had gathered.  
“I don’t get it. I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicity. There’s always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?”  
Sam turned on a lamp near another wall covered with paper.  
“Dad figured it out,”  
Dean and I both looked at him.  
“What do you mean?”  
“He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She’s a woman in white,”  
Dean looked back at the photo’s of Constance’s victim’s, “You sly dogs,”  
“But wouldn’t have Dad burned her corpse?” I asked.  
“She might have another weakness,” Sam suggested.  
“Well, Dad would want to make sure,” Dean said, scanning the wall, “Does it say where she’s buried?”  
“No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I’d go ask her husband,” Sam tapped on the photo of Joseph Welch. “If he’s still alive,” Sam added.  
“All right. Why don’t you, uh, see if you can find an address. I’m gonna get cleaned up,"  
“Sounds good, toilet water,” I joked.  
“Oh, that’s it,” Dean came over and swallowed me in a big hug.  
“Ah, gross! Now, I smell like toilet,” I complained as Dean smirked at me.  
He turned to go into the shower before Sam said, “Hey, Dean? What I said, about Mom and Dad, I’m sorry,”  
Dean held a hand up, “No chick-flick moments,”  
Sam laughed, “All Right. Jerk,”  
“Bitch,” Dean retorted before going into the bathroom  
I watched as Sam crossed the room toward a large. He picked a picture of the side of it. I could barely make out the three of us, and Dad in front of the Impala. He smiled sadly.  
“Sam?”  
He turned to look at me.  
“I’m sorry, for yesterday. I just… missed you, but I get it, you had to start your own life, and focus on a normal life. And… I’m sorry,”  
Sam shook his head, “You did nothing wrong, Sadie. I should have called. It was just…. Hard,” Sam thought for a moment, “But, if you want, we can skip phone calls and you could come live with me?”  
I blinked. “What?”  
Sam scratched the back of his head, “I don’t need an answer right now, I thought maybe you’d like to give a shot at a normal life.  
“I’ll- I’ll think about it,”  
Sam nodded, and went to the phone by the bed, but I just stood there. A normal life? Normal for me had always been this life. Moving from place to place, hunting monsters, saving people. I didn’t know anything else. I wondered if there was something better about the life Sam had been living. He seemed happy with an apartment. And with Jess, and with school. Was that waiting for me outside all of this?  
Dean walked out of the bathroom, dirt free, and said, “Hey, I’m starving, I’m gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You want anything?”  
“No,” Sam answered.  
I smiled greedily at Dean.  
“Why am I not surprised?” Dean turned back to Sam, “You sure? Aframian’s buying,”  
Sam shook his head.  
“All right, man. Your loss. Come on, Sadie,” Dean said, ruffling my hair.  
I followed Dean outside toward the Impala. We were almost there when I noticed two guys walking toward us out of the corner of my eye.  
“Dean…” He pulled his jacket.  
He glanced over to see the same two police officers staring us down. Dean took my shoulder and turned us away, pulling out his phone.  
“Dude, five-oh, take off,” Dean spoke into the phone, “Uh, they kinda spotted us. Go find Dad,”  
Dean slipped the phone back in his pocket and when we turned around the two policemen were staring at us.  
“Problem, officers?” Dean asked.  
“Where’s your partner?” The first one asked.  
“Partner? What, what partner?”  
The first officer pointed to the motel room we were in, and the second one started walking over.  
“So,” the first officer continued, “Fake US Marshal. Fake credit cards. You got anything that’s real?”  
“My boobs,” Dean answered seriously, getting a laugh out of me.  
The officer slammed Dean against the car, putting handcuffs on him. The second officer came back with no Sam following him. Dean was put into the back of the police car like a criminal, while they treated me like a scared little kid. If only they knew. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I didn’t see where they took Dean. They left with in the front of the station at an officer's desk. They planned on further questioning once they were done with Dean. Before the got the chance to, all the officers left in a hurry, gearing up for something big. I tensed, getting ready to move to Dean if all hell broke loose. One of the officers said to me quickly, “Just wait here, darling, we’ll be back soon,”  
I noticed behind him, Dean peeking his head into the room. I nodded to the officer, smiling.  
Within a few moments, the area was like a ghost town. One or two people were left behind but no one seemed to care when I got up and walked into the back rooms where Dean was.  
I smiled when I saw him, “Are you okay?”  
Dean rustled my hair, “Nothing I couldn’t handle. Come on, we gotta go find Sammy,”  
We went back through the station, climbing out a fire escape. We kept moving until Dean reached a payphone. He patted his pockets for change, and ducked into the booth. I waited outside keeping watch.  
“Fake 911 phone call? Sammy, I don’t know, that’s pretty illegal,” I heard Dean say. “Listen, we gotta talk…. Sammy would you shut up for a second?..... Well that’s what I’m trying to tell you. He’s gone. Dad left Jericho?” I peered into the phone booth with an eyebrow raised at Dean. Dad didn’t go anywhere without that journal, “I’ve got his journal,” He continued to Sammy, “Yeah, well, he did this time….Ah, the same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he’s going…. I’m not sure yet….. Sam?... Sam!”  
Dean slammed the phone on the receiver and yelled, “Son of a bitch!” He came out of the booth with a look of angry and worry.  
“Dean? What’s happened to Sam?”  
“He’s in trouble, come on,” 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Normally, I was against breaking the law when it could be avoided. I felt bad for inconveniencing innocent people. However, Sam was in trouble, so when Dean suggested we steal a car, I didn’t bother protesting. I just got in the car. We found the Impala outside an abandoned home. I could hear Sam yelling.  
“Stay in the car!” Dean yelled, pushing the door open.  
He ran forward, gun in hand, and I went out after him. He aimed the gun through the drivers side door, and through my side I could see Sam and a woman in white on top of him digging into his chest. Dean fired at her, causing her to disappear. Sam struggled to sit up and turned the key, “I’m taking you home,”  
Sam slammed his foot on the gas and drove forward. Dean and I watched wide eyed as Sam drove through the side of the house.  
“Sam!” I yelled running through the wreckage.  
“Dammit, Sadie!” Dean yelled after me.  
“Sam, are you okay?” I asked looking through the passenger side.  
“I think…”  
“Can you move?” Dean asked, coming up alongside me.  
“Yeah. Help me?”  
Dean reached his hand through the window to help Sam climb over. I moved away from the car, looking around the house. There was a photograph on the mantle, a picture of a woman, and two children.  
“Constance,” I muttered, going to grab it. I heard the car door slam behind me and at the same time, two hands grabbed the picture, and flung it to the ground. A bureau suddenly moved across the room, pinning Sam and Dean against the car. Constance stood behind me, anger consuming her face.  
“Sadie!” I heard Dean yelled.  
The lights flickered around us. I thought it was Constance at first, but even she looked afraid.  
Water came pouring down the stairs. Two children were looking at us, holding hands. The same children from the photograph.  
“You’ve come home to us, Mommy,” They said.  
Constance started at them distraught. The children embraced her tightly, and she screamed. I covered my ears as her image flickered, and all three of them melted on to the floor.  
Dean and Sam pushed off the bureau and walked over to me.  
“So this is where she drowned her kids,” Dean said.  
Sam nodded, “That’s why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them,”  
“You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy,” Dean slapped Sam’s chance where Constance had dug into him. He laughed through the pain.  
“Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?”  
“Hey. Saved your ass,” Dean turned to her. “What were you thinking running out of the car,”  
“Uh, helping?” I suggested.  
“Uh huh. Do my sanity a favor next time, and please wait in the car,”  
“Well since you asked nicely,” I smiled, knowing next time I would run right for the danger if it meant looking after my brothers. I pointed to the car, “Hey, I think I see a scratch,”  
Dean twisted to look at Sam, “If you screwed up my car? I’ll kill you,” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We sped down the highway, back toward Stanford. I thought about Sam’s offer to stay. I could be normal. But at the cost of losing Dean. I was worried it would be similar to when Sam left. I would leave, and would never talk to Dean again. It hurt enough losing one brother, I couldn’t stand the thought of losing a second. Yet, if I let Sam go back, would I hear from him again? Or would it be the same story all over again? I didn’t want that either.  
“Okay, here’s where Dad went,” Sam said, pointing to the map on his lap.  
I looked over his seat.  
“Blackwater Ridge, Colorado,” I read.  
“Sounds charming. How far?” Dean asked.  
“About six hundred miles,”  
“Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning,”  
Sam hesitated. “Dean, I, um…”  
“You’re not going,” Dean finished.  
“The interview’s in like, ten hours. I gotta be there,”  
I slumped back into my seat. I was hoping Sam could make it easy and just stay. I could see on Dean’s face he was disappointed too.  
“Yeah. Yeah, whatever. I’ll take you home,” Dean nodded.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A part of me hoped we would never reach Sam’s apartment. I knew it was a stupid wish, but I wanted this to last forever. Sam got out of the car, and looked back in through the window, “Call me if you find him?”  
Dean nodded.  
“And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?”  
“Yeah, all right,”  
Sam turned to me, and I hopped out of the car behind him. I wrapped my arms around him into a hug.  
“I’ll think about it,” I whispered in his ear, “Keep in touch this time,”  
I felt him chuckle, “I will. For real this time,”  
I let go know, not wanting to leave. I got into the front of the Impala this time. Sam smiled, and patted the car twice before turning back inside. Dean leaned over and called out, “Sam?”  
Sam turned.  
“You know, we made a hell of a team back there,”  
“Yeah,” Sam agreed.  
Dean paused for a second before driving off. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I pulled out my book as Dean drove. I hadn’t had the the dream since I saw Sam, but the thought of it still haunted me. I looked at the picture again.  
Dean glanced over my shoulder, “Hey, that’s a pretty good drawing,”  
“Huh? Oh, thanks,”  
“Is that Jess?”  
I held my breath, “Dean, turn around,”  
“What?”  
“Turn around right now!”  
Dean didn’t ask why, but he turned around and peeled back toward Sam’s apartment.  
“What the hell is going on!” Dean asked as he drove.  
“Something’s not right, I think-” I was cut of by the street lights flickering all down the street. The stereo went static, going in and out.  
Dean looked at the radio, and then at me. He started speeding.  
We were back outside Sam’s place within a matter of minutes. Dean ran out of the car and called back, “Wait in the car. I mean it this time!” And he ran inside.  
I watched the house, and a few seconds later, I saw smoke coming from the windows and door. A swung the door open as people started leaving the house. Alarms were ringing, and I could hear someone yelling inside.  
“Sam! Dean!” I yelled, looking frantically.  
My brothers came out last, Dean practically pulling Sam along.  
I ran up to them, both coughing. I was about to ask what happened but I saw Dean slightly shake his head. The firetrucks pulled up as we walked back to the Impala. Sam opened the trunk silently, and started looking through the arsenal.  
Dean took the time to explain to me what happened. Just as it happened in my dream.  
“How did you-” Dean started to ask, before Sam slammed the trunk closed.  
“How you doing?” Dean asked.  
“I’m fine,” Sam answered, trying to mask his anger and grief. “Come on. We got work to do,”


	2. 1.02 Wendigo

I laid in the backseat of the Impala staring at the picture of Jess I drew. I didn’t know how to tell my brothers how I knew what I knew. I lied and told Dean I noticed the flickering lights before he did. He didn’t believe me, but let it go.   
Sam jumped awake in his seat. Dean looked over concerned as he rubbed his eyes.  
“You okay?” he asked.  
Sam didn’t meet his eyes, “Yeah, I’m fine,”   
“Another nightmare?”   
Sam coughed.  
“You wanna drive for a while?”  
Sam and I both laughed.  
“Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that question,” Sam pointed out.   
“Yeah, next you’ll be asking me to drive,” I laughed.  
“Just thought you might want to. Never mind,”   
“Look, man, you’re worried about me. I get it, and thank you, but I’m perfectly okay,”  
Dean met my eyes in the rear view mirror. We both knew it wasn’t true.   
Sam picked up the map. “All right, where are we?”  
“We are just outside of Grand Junction,”  
I looked over Sam’s seat and saw the large red circle with the coordinates on it.   
Sam sighed, “You know what? Maybe we shouldn’t have left Stanford so soon,”   
“Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica-”  
“We gotta find Dad first,” Sam finished.  
“Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it’s no coincidence. Dad will have answers. He’ll know what to do,”   
“It’s weird, man,” Sam said, looking at the map again, “These coordinates he left us, this Blackwater Ridge,”   
“What do you mean?” I asked.  
“There’s nothing there. It’s just woods. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
One of my favorite parts of working with my brothers is I get to visit other places I wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Like the Ranger Station for this forest.   
“So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote,” Sam was staring at a 3D map of the area. The map was cool, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off the decorations. There were pictures and stuffings of animals all around.   
“It’s cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place,” Sam kept saying.   
“Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear,” Dean was staring at a picture on the wall. The bear in it was at least three times my size.  
“Wow,” I marveled, “That’s awesome,”  
I heard Sam sigh behind us, “Like brother like sister,”   
“Don’t be jealous because you’re the lamest sibling, Sammy,” I joked.   
Sam shook his head, and looked at the bear picture.  
“You know, there’s a dozen or more grizzly bears in the area. It’s definitely no nature hike,”   
I looked at Sam with wide eyes, “Do you think we’ll see a bear?”  
“We’ll be seeing much more than bears up here, Sadie,” Dean pointed out.   
“You kids aren’t planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?” A voice asked from behind. Turning around, we were met with a ranger watching us.   
“Oh, no, sir, we’re environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper. And this is our little sister,” Sam answered.  
Dean raised a fist, “Recycle, man,”   
“Bull,” The ranger stated.  
The three of us exchanged nervous looks.   
“You’re friends with that Haley girl, right?”  
“Yes,” Dean answered, “Yes, we are, Ranger….. Wilkinson,”  
He crossed his arms, “Well I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a back country permit saying he wouldn’t be back from Blackwater until the twenty fourth, so it’s not exactly a missing persons now, is it?” He ranted, as if this wasn’t the first, or even third time he’s heard this compliant before. “You tell that girl to quit worrying, I’m sure her brother’s just fine,”  
Dean nodded, “We will. Well that Haley girl’s quite a pistol, huh?”  
The Ranger scoffed, “That is putting it mildly,”  
“Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that back country permit. You know, so she could see her brother’s return date,”  
The ranger eyed Dean, but eventually forked over the permit.  
Dean was in a particularly good mood taking the permit out of the ranger’s station.   
“What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?” Sam asked.  
“Ew,” I commented.  
“What do you mean?” Dean asked.  
“The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let’s just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?”  
“I don’t know, maybe we should know what we’re walking into before we actually walk into it?” Dean looked Sam up and down.  
“What?” Sam asked.  
“Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?”  
“Since now,” Sam answered, climbing into the car.  
“Really?” Dean asked more to himself than Sam.   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Once again, Dean had me wait in the car while they went in to talk to the girl.   
“I could be like a girl scout or something!” I argued.  
“You? A Girl Scout?” Dean raised an eyebrow.  
“I could do the Scout’s honor and everything!” I said holding my three left hand fingers up.  
“It’s your right hand,” Sam pointed out as he walked toward the house.  
“Nice try, kid,” Dean said, following Sam to the house.   
I sighed and flopped back into the seat. I pulled my journal out, and stared at the picture of Jess. All my thoughts came running back. How did I know? Who do I tell? Should I tell? Should I just forget? I turned the page in my book. I decided to start a rough sketch of my father. I wondered if he was waiting in woods for us. What was he fighting up there he needed us for? Unless he wasn’t there. I didn’t want to think about that option. I tried to rid myself of all thought and just focused on the drawing. By the time I finished my brothers were back in the car.   
“So, what did we learn?” I asked curiously.   
“Well, there’s definitely something here,” Sam commented as Dean drove off.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Dean ended up taking us to a bar. Here, I was allowed to join them inside. For our family, going to a bar was like going into one of those cute family restaurant where the waitress calls me sweetie and gives me crayons to draw.. Except everything smelled like beer and there’s no crayons.   
I squished into the window seat next to Dean. Sam immediately began with his research.  
“So, Blackwater Ridge doesn’t get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found,” He looked inside Dad’s journal.  
“Any before that?” Dean asked.  
Sam pulled out a newspaper and turned it to us,”   
“Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack,” Sam pulled out his laptop, “And again in 1959, and again before that in 1936. Every 23 years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here’s a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy’s video from the laptop. Check this out.”  
Sam pulled the video up. He clicked the keys to the computer, showing three frames from the video one at a time.   
“I don’t get it,” I said.  
“Do it again,” Dean commented, nodding toward the computer.  
Sam repeated the same frames. I could see maybe some type of shadow crossing from behind.   
“That’s three frames.” Sam explained. “That’s a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move.”   
Dean hit Sam on the arm. “I told you something weird was going on.”  
Sam closed his laptop. “I got one more thing.” He slide a newspaper article on the table. “In fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive.”  
I read over the paper. Mr. Shaw.   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I laid in the back seat of the Impala. It was dark outside. I wished the Impala had a sun roof so I could see the stars. Sam and Dean got to go inside and talk to the old guy. It wasn’t fair, I was helping just as much on the case. And yet I waited and waited for Sam and Dean to get back and retell and retold tale. Not as fun.  
“So, it’s not a spirit?” I asked.  
“Not a demon either.” Dean nodded. “If they want inside, they just go through walls.”  
“So it’s probably something else, something corporeal.” Sam said.  
“Corporeal? Excuse me, professor.”   
I gave a confused look. I had no idea what corporeal meant.  
“Shut up. So what do you think?”  
“The claws, the speed that it moves… could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. Whatever we’re talking about, we’re talking about a creature-”  
“Something coralopeal.” I added.  
“Corporeal.” Dean corrected. “Which means we can kill it.”   
Sam thought for a moment. “We cannot let that Haley girl go out there.”  
“Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? She can’t go into the woods because of the big scary monster?”  
“Yeah.”  
At first, I thought he was joking. But by the look on his face, I was pretty sure he was serious. I looked at him, shocked. Normally Dean would be saying something crazy like that. It was like opposite day.   
“Her brother’s missing, Sam. She’s not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend.”  
“Finding Dad’s not enough? Now we gotta babysit, too?”  
I played with the dirty under my fingernails. I decided not to comment. Dean shot him a look.   
“What?” Sam asked, defensively.   
“Nothing.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The next morning, I made sure to get up bright and early. I got the ingredients for pancakes and scrambled eggs, and even managed to make my own pot of coffee. Dean didn’t wake up until the bacon starting cooking.  
“Sadie?” He asked rubbing his eyes. “What… are you making breakfast?”  
“Yup! I made coffee too.” I put on my best smile.  
Dean smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re not coming today, kid.” He sat at the table and took a pancake.  
“But, I’ve been practicing fighting and I’ve been doing the homework and I’ll be with you the whole time!” I argued.  
“Sadie, I can’t risk something happening to you out there. Dad would kill me… and we can’t always keep an eye on you. If something were to happen…” Dean’s voice trailed off.  
I sighed and sat at the table. I took a pancake from the stack. “I know. I’ll stay here. Maybe learn to cook some pie. I can become a house maid or something.”  
Dean sighed. “When you’re older, we’ll take you out more. I promise.”  
I cut into my pancakes. “Yeah.”  
Sam woke up not too long after and joined us for breakfast. They packed a duffel bag filled with weapons and supplies. I was able to help with that, of course. I can carry a shotgun but I couldn’t go on a hike in the woods. It wasn’t fair and for once I didn’t care. Normally, I was okay with listening to everything Dean told me. But the thought of Dad being there drove me to go. So when the boys left I reached under the bed and grabbed my backpack. I had packed it last night in case my breakfast bribe hadn’t worked. I wait five minutes to make sure they had pulled out for good. Once I was sure, I took the spare motel room key, and left.  
I started hiking down the street. It took about 15 minutes to reach the edge of the small before getting into the forest. Luckily, I had checked the place out beforehand and some kid made the mistake of leaving their skateboard out at the park. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if I borrowed it for awhile. I pulled it out from its hiding spot and started quickly making my way down the street. Small town turned into deep, dark forest quickly. Even the area seem to grow colder.  
It took a while, but eventually I found my way to an opening to a hiking trail where the Impala was parked. No one seemed to be around so I hopped off my skateboard and hid it in the trees. I took a breath. Once I found my brothers and my dad I was going to be in deep trouble. I started my walk.   
I followed the path in a light run. I had no idea how much of a head start they had on me, and I didn’t want to be left around here after dark. I had told Dean I was in good shape, but after 40 minutes of straight running, sweat poured down my face. My legs ache and my head was thumping. I kept pushing and pushing and I must’ve been less focused and didn’t notice the tree root sticking out of the ground. I came crashing down and rolled down a big hill. Sharp sticks and pointy rocks brushed and poked my skin, the ground hitting me like a truck with each movement. The last thing I remembered was a drop off before it all going dark.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I woke up the sound of woman. She was saying a name. It took my awhile to sit up, my head was pounding. My body ached and my feet hurt.   
“Dean….” My voice was hoarse. “Sam….”   
I climbed up slowly, hugging onto a tree. My legs felt alright to walk, and my arms didn’t hurt too bad, so most likely I hadn’t broken anything.   
“Sam! Dean!” I called out, making my way slowly forward. I could hear rustling far off. It was easy to hear because there was no background noise from birds or crickets. Weird.  
I kept moving forward, calling out. It didn’t take me long to see in the distance, a campsite. I started moving quickly forward.   
“Dean! Sa-” As a ran forward, a man with a shotgun jumped out of nowhere and held his gun at me.  
“Woah, hey!” I jumped back. Once he realized I was a kid, he lowered his gun.   
“What the hell are you doing out here, kid?” The man asked me.   
A woman walked up to me. She looked a lot like the girl who’s brother went missing. Haley.   
“Oh my god, what happened to you?” She kneeled in front of me and started looking over my injuries.  
“Alright,” a voice started saying, coming out of the woods. “We have a-” Dean’s eyes met mine. He seemed to go through several stages of denial, bargaining, and finally ended on anger. He stomped over, and Sam who came out a few moments later looking over all shocked.  
Dean held my shoulders tightly. “Sadie, what the hell are you doing? How did you even get here, what happened to you?”   
“I wanted to help.” I wiped the dirt from my face. “And… I fell. I’m… I’m sorry.” I felt myself getting worked up. I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from crying.   
Dean sighed and looked me over. “Come on, I have some bandages in my bag.”   
The campsite they were at was broken down and covered in blood. It looked as if a bear had come through for a midnight snack. I noticed drag marks across the ground. Bodies.   
“What the hell?” Haley asked angrily. “Our packs!”  
Sam sighed. “It’s smart. It wants to cut us off so we can’t call for help.”   
“You mean someone.” The man with the gun corrected. “Some nut job out there just stole all our gear.”  
Sam leaned in close to Dean and I. “I need to speak with you… in private.”   
We walked off a little ways away. My feet still hurt from walking so long so I trailed more slowly behind.   
“Okay. Let me see Dad’s journal.” Dean pulled it from his pocket and handed it to Sam. He flipped a few pages before turning it to us. The page had a drawing of a human figured. It was titled “Wendigo”.  
Dean chuckled. “Oh come on. Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or northern Michigan. I’ve never heard of one this far west.”  
“Think about it Dean- the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice.”  
“Cool.” I said.  
“No, not cool.” Dean turned to me. “You shouldn’t be here, Wendigos are very dangerous and we don’t have the firepower to take them on.”   
Sam shoved the journal back to Dean. “We need to get everyone to safety.”   
He walked back to camp and declared. “It’s time to go. Things have gotten more complicated.”  
Haley looked at him in disbelief. “What?”  
“Kid, don’t worry. Whatever’s out there I think I can handle it.” Shotgun said with a smile.   
“It’s not me I’m worried about. If you shoot this thing, you’re just gonna make it mad. We have to leave now.”  
“One, you’re talking nonsense. Two, you’re in no position to give anybody orders.”  
“Relax.” Dean called.   
“We never should have let you come out in the first place. I’m trying to protect you.”  
“You protect me?” Shotgun asked in angrily, walking up to Sam. “I was hunting in these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night.”  
“It’s a damn-near-perfect hunter.” Sam said matter of factually. “It’s smarter than you. And it’s gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here.” Sam said that last part with a slight grin on his face.  
Shotgun laughed in his face, and hit his arm. “You know you’re crazy, right?”  
“Yeah? You ever hunt a wen-”  
Dean pulled him away. “Chill out.”  
“Stop it! Everybody just stop!” Haley said. She looked to Dean. “Look, Tommy might still be alive and I’m not leaving here without him.”   
“It’s getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We’ll never beat it- not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves.”   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While the others worked on a fire, I watched Dean draw protective symbols around the camp. I tried to remember them the best I could, in case I ever ended up lost again. I tried to make small talk with Dean, hoping to get over what happened earlier.  
“So these Anatazi-”  
“Anasazi” He corrected.  
“Anastozi symbols. They’ll protect us from Wendigos?”  
“Yup. It’s like a salt line. Bastards can’t cross over them.” Dean glanced over at me. “Don’t use that word.”   
I nodded.   
Dean’s eyes drifted to Sam, sitting alone away from the fire. “Come on.” Dean nodded in his direction.  
Dean and I sat on opposite sides of Sam.   
“You wanna tell us what’s going on in that freaky head of yours?”   
“I’m-”  
“No, you’re not fine. You’re like a powder keg, man. It’s not like you. I’m supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?”  
Sam paused. “Dad’s not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign right?”  
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Tell you the truth, I don’t think Dad’s ever been to Lost Creek.”  
I felt my hopes drop. This was the closest I had been in a long time to having my family back together. Maybe we could’ve gotten a house. Stopped chasing monsters. The night seemed to have gotten colder.  
“Then let’s get these people back to town and let’s hit the road. Go find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?” Sam threw a stick onto the ground in frustration.   
“This is why.” Dean stood up and sat across from us. He pulled out Dad’s journal and put his hand on top of it. “This book. This is Dad’s single most valuable possession- everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he’s passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business.”   
Sam shook his head. “That makes no sense.” He put his head in his hands. “Why doesn’t he just- call us? Why doesn’t he- tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?”  
“I dunno. But the way I see it, Dad’s giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it.”  
“Dean… no. I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica’s killer. It’s the only thing I can think about.”  
“Okay, all right, Sam, we’ll find them, I promise. Listen to me. You’ve gotta prepare yourself. I mean this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can’t keep it burning over the long haul. It’s gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man.”  
Sam looked down at the ground and then back at Dean. He chuckled. “How do you do it? How does Dad do it?”  
Dean glanced over to the group. “Well, for one them. I mean, I figure our family’s so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable.” He paused. “I’ll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can.”   
Sam smiled.   
I fiddled with the sticks on the ground. “When we find Dad… you won’t tell him about this, right?  
Dean sighed. “This type of stuff is dangerous, Sadie. We can’t do our job while worrying about you getting hurt. What if it got dark before you found us? What if something had gotten to you?”  
I kept my head down.   
Dean sighed. “If it doesn’t happen again...we can keep it from Dad.”  
“It won’t!” I let out a breath of relief.   
Our peace was short lived as soon after a voice called out from the woods. “Help me! Please!”  
Sam and Dean stood up immediately, keeping me behind them. Sam pointed his flashlight out into the darkness and Dean cocked the shotgun.   
“He’s trying to draw us out.” Dean told the others. “Just stay cool. Stay put.”   
“Inside the magic circle?” Roy mocked, holding his gun up.   
The voice called out from the woods again, followed by a horrible growling. I moved closer to Sam and Dean. Haley moved Ben closer to her. “You’ll be alright. I promise.”   
Something ran by us. Haley screamed.  
“It’s here.”   
Roy fired a shot into the trees. It kept moving around us. He fired a few more until we heard a shriek. “I hit it!” Roy yelled, victorious. He ran off into the dark.  
“Roy, no!” Dean called after him.   
Dean turned around. “Don’t move.”   
I watched Sam and him run off after Roy. Haley made a torch and swung it around to see if anything was coming for us. I made one, too. Wendigos were afraid of fire.   
Sam and Dean came back with no sign of Roy. It didn’t look good. We had no choice but to stay until morning, in case the wendigos would try to get us too.   
I hung out with Sam while Dean stayed with Haley and Ben. Dean was in a lady zone and I did not want to witness another round of flirting with another girl.  
Sam didn’t say much, we just sat against a huge tree trunk. He held on to Dad’s journal, playing the beads that hang off it.   
“Sam?”   
“Yeah?”  
“Do you ever feel like you're babysitting me?"   
Sam gave me a look. "Why do you ask?"   
I shrugged. "Something you said to Dean earlier.   
Sam took a breath. "I worry about you. But you're not a burden to us, Sadie. You're apart of this team."   
"Yeah, the team member who gets benched."   
"Do you remember when we were younger, and I got stuck doing the research with you in the libraries?"   
I nodded.   
"Do you remember how many cases we solved together?"   
I nodded again.   
"Just because you aren't out in the field doesn't mean you aren't doing anything. Dean told me you've been trying to get out more, but trust me, you're going to miss the library."   
I scoffed. "Maybe,"   
Sam stood up and held out his hand for me to take. "Come on, we're losing daylight,"   
I took his hand and followed him back to Dean and the others.  
“Hey,” Sam said as we approached. “So we’ve got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch.”   
“Well, hell, you know I’m in.” Dean glanced down at me. “We don’t have time to take you back but you better stay far behind us going into this.”   
Not wanting to get in more trouble with my dad than I already would be I said, “Yes, I know.”   
Sam opened the journal to the page and showed it to Haley and Ben. “‘Wendigo’ is a Cree Indian word. It means ‘evil that devours.’”  
“They’re hundreds of years old.” Dean continued. “Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter.”  
“How’s a man turn into one of those things?” Haley asked.   
“Well, it’s always the same. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp.”  
“Like the Donner Party.” Ben said.   
“Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality.”   
“If you eat enough of it, over the years, you become this less than human thing. You’re always hungry.”   
“So if that’s true, how can Tommy still be alive?” Haley asked.  
“You’re not gonna like it.”  
“Tell me.”   
“More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it’s awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother’s alive, it’s keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there.” Dean explained.  
“And then how do we stop it?”  
“Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically-” Dean held up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle and a white cloth. “We gotta torch the sucker.”   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
My head drifted as we started walking through the woods again. I tried to remember the last time my entire family got to go hunting together. Technically, I guess the answer was never. Dad never let me join in like this. Despite how much I begged. It was a family business, and I wanted to belong. I think that’s why everyone thought Dean and I were so similar. We always wanted to be apart of the family business, and Sam always wanted another life. Sometimes I hated him for it. I don’t know if it was because I wanted him in our family or I wanted to join in his fantasy.   
“Dean,” I heard Sam say from the front of the group. I followed Dean to him.   
Sam pointed around us. There were bloody claw marks and broken branches all around.   
“You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow.”   
Growling came from behind us. The trees rustled. I huddled in close to the rest of the group, behind Sam and Dean as the rustling continued. I tried to make out the sight of wendigo, but couldn’t see anything. My search was interrupted by the sound of something dripping. There was blood on my jacket. I looked up and saw something hurtling toward me. I let out a shriek and dived forward. Something hit the ground. Sam was over me in an instant. “You okay? Sadie?”   
I nodded as Sam pulled me to my feet. Dean was hovering over Roy’s corpse. “His neck’s broke.”   
The growling got louder.   
“Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!” Dean ordered.   
I turned away and booked it as fast as I could. My body immediately felt as though it was on fire again. Everything ached. I quickly fell behind the rest of the group. Sam was close by and saw me slacking so he quickly pulled me up on his back. The growling got louder.   
Ben fell next to us, and Sam leaned over to pick him up. I could hear them breathing heavy mixed in with my own. I could feel the forest moving all around us. Someone screamed.   
We forward toward it.   
“Haley?” Ben called out.   
Sam slowed down and I hopped off his back. He bent down and picked something. A white cloth in a broken beer bottle.   
“Dean!” Sam yelled.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
We searched around for a few minutes, coming up with nothing. Worry filled my body. If the wendigo killed Roy, does that mean it would kill Dean too? I stayed very close to Sam, nearly clinging to his arm. We walked slowly through the woods.   
“If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?” Ben asked.  
“Honestly? I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off.” Sam answered.  
Ben took a few steps ahead, picking some off the ground. “They went this way.” He said excitedly, holding something up.   
“Is that an M&M?” I asked as Sam took it.   
“Dean had a whole bag.” Sam threw it to the side. “Better than breadcrumbs.”   
We followed the trail of M&Ms until we came across an old mine. There was a sign next to the entrance saying “Warning! Danger! Do not Enter Extremely Toxic Material.”   
Sam glanced back at us and went inside. We followed.   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The mine was cold and dark. I could hear and feel water dripping from the ceiling. Sam pulled a flashlight from his pocket. We made our way down the tracks until we heard growling. I felt something tug on the back of my jacket and lead me to the cave wall. Sam held me close and Ben as well. I could see the silhouette of a wendigo walking down the mines. It was a humanoid figure but something about it was… off. It was taller than a normal human and it’s limbs weren’t sized correctly.   
When it disappeared, we kept going.   
The mine got darker the further we went. I could hear the wood creaking underneath us. I could feel it bending under my feet before it broke way, causing us to fall into a hole. Once again, my body tumbled downwards, and I landed on something hard and painful. I could hear Sam and Ben groaning near me. I lifted my head slowly, feeling new wounds and old wounds open up. Blood trickled down my face. I jumped back, seeing what was in front of me. Skulls. Lots of them. I felt Sam’s hand come down on my shoulder “Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay.”   
I took a few deep breaths, looking around some more. In the corner of the cave I could make out two figures hanging from the ceiling. Dean and Haley. Sam and I seemed to realize this at the same time and jumped up and ran over to them. Sam grabbed Dean by his jacket. “Dean!”   
Ben followed, focused on Haley.   
“Dean!” Sam called again.   
His eyes opened.   
“Hey, you okay?”   
He winced. “Yeah.” He nodded. “Yeah.”   
Sam cut him down and stumbled with him up against the cave wall. Blood and sweat covered his face. He sounded like he was in a lot of pain.   
“Are you sure you’re all right?” I asked.  
He grimaced. “Yeah. Yep. Where is it?”  
“He’s gone for now.” Sam answered.   
I heard shuffling near us. I looked up and saw Ben and Haley walking together toward a third person hanging from the ceiling, unconscious. I could hear Haley crying as she reached out to touch his face.  
“Tommy…”   
The body jumped, causing Haley to scream. I myself jumped next to Dean who had been reduced to nearly laying on the cave ground. He kept me close.   
“Cut him down!” Haley said to Sam who was standing near by.  
Sam reached above and cut Tommy’s arms. He practically fell into Haley and Ben’s arms. I watched as Dean dug into something behind me. I turned around. Backpacks. Dean pulled two guns out and tried to stand up. I let him lean against me.   
“Check it out.” He held them up.  
“Flare guns. Those’ll work.” Sam grinned.  
Dean laughed and twirled the guns.   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Together, we all stumbled through the cave. Tommy stood between Haley and Ben. Normally, my brothers would have put me in the back too, but Dean was still using me slightly as a crutch. I could tell he was trying to stand on his own, but the wendigo had got him bad in the side. I didn’t mind. I’d rather be close in case something happened. We didn’t get far when the growling began again.   
“Looks like someone’s home for supper.” Dean commented.   
“We’ll never outrun it.” Haley said.   
Dean glanced back. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” He asked Sam.  
“Yeah, I think so.”   
“What? What are you thinking?” I asked, worriedly.   
Dean winked at me and let go of me. He started running ahead and screaming “Chow time, you fucking bastard! Yeah, that’s right, bring it on, baby, I taste good!”   
We waited until we couldn’t hear Dean anymore. Sam looked forward, flare gun in hand. “Alright come on!”   
Sam lead us back to where we started. I could hear the growling getting louder.   
He turned to us. “Get him out of here.”   
“Sam, no!” Haley argued.   
“Sadie, go with them.”  
“Sam, I-”   
“Go!”   
The three of them started running forward, and a moment later I followed. We continued quickly down through the tunnel. A few moments later I heard a loud growl followed by a flare gun going off.   
“Sam!” I called down the tunnel.   
Through the mist, I could see my brother running toward us. “Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry!”   
We ran through the tunnels, hearing the growling and snarling behind us. Eventually, we made it to a dead end.   
“Sam what do we do?” I asked frantically.   
“Get behind me!” He said.   
The four of us stood behind Sam with his arms stretched out. The wendigo made it’s was slowly down the tunnel, it’s ugly face coming to light. It looked like an old man who hadn’t seen the light for half his life.   
“Hey!” A voice yelled from behind it.   
The wendigo whipped around and saw Dean standing there. He fired a shot off from his flare gun. It erupted in the wendigo’s stomach, an orange light glowing and eating the rest of it until it was nothing but ash. Sam let his arms down.  
“Not bad, huh?”   
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
It took us a few hours to make it back to the station. Sam and Dean coached the others on the grizzly bear story, which I felt was as believable as we were going to get. I sat on the hood of the Impala watching the chaos of the police and rangers around me. Sam stood with Ben, giving his statement to the police, and Haley spoke with Dean. Both groups met in front of where I was.   
Haley kissed Dean on the cheek. “I hope you find your father.   
She walked over and put an arm around Ben. “Thanks, Sam. Good luck, Sadie.”   
Dean and Sam sat on either side of me as the two of them climbed into an ambulance with Tommy.   
As they closed the doors Dean said, “Man, I hate camping.”  
“Me too.”   
“Agreed.” I nodded.  
“Sam you know we’re gonna find Dad, right?” Dean asked.   
“I know. But in the meantime? I’m driving.”   
Dean through Sam the keys.   
“Do I get to drive next?” I asked.  
“Absolutely not.” Dean said, getting into the car.   
I smiled, climbing into my usual seat in the back.


	3. 1.03: Dead in the Water

1.03

From the time I could read, I had forced a rule upon my family. I refused to do any homework while I was eating. So instead of looking for a case in the newspaper, I watched Dean scribble out case after case while I slowly ate my pie.  
“You won’t be able to escape this forever,” Dean said glancing at my almost empty plate.  
I took another crumb from my pie. “Not forever, Just until you have a case,”  
“Could be a while without an extra….” He trailed off, circling in the paper. “I might have something here.”  
I finished off the rest of my pie. “Once again no homework for me!”  
Dean was about to comment when our waitress Wendy came over wearing very short clothing. “Can I get you anything else?” She asked Dean.  
I coughed as Dean started checking her body out. Luckily, Sam came in and said “Just the check, please,”  
“Okay,” Wendy said, eyeing Dean as she went to get it.  
Dean’s head dropped and he looked at Sam. “You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while,” Dean pointed to Wendy’s short shorts. “That’s fun.”  
Sam stared at Dean. He handed Sam the newspaper, “All right, here. I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, 18, walks into the lake, doesn’t walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago,”  
“A funeral?” Sam asked.  
“Yeah, it’s weird, they buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever,”  
I nodded slowly. “I think I get it. It would suck worrying all that time,”  
“People don’t just disappear.” Sam said, “Other people just stop looking for them,”  
“Something you want to say to me?” Dean asked.  
“The trail for Dad. It’s getting colder every day.”  
“Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?”  
“I don’t know. Something. Anything,”  
“You know what? I’m sick of this attitude. You don’t think I wanna find Dad as much as you do?” Dean asked.  
I looked away, pushing around the tiny crumbs with my fork.  
“Yeah, I know you do, it’s just-”  
“Sadie and I were the ones who were there every single day for the past two years, while you’ve been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we’re gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?”  
Sam sighed. Wendy walked by again, capturing Dean’s attention.  
“All right,” Sam agreed. “Lake Manitoc.”  
“Dean!” I called as he watched the waitress.  
“Huh?”  
“How far?” Sam asked.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the Wendigo case, I had been trying my best to not back talk when Dean and Sam tell me I have to wait in the car. Still, there was nothing as boring going from place to place, doing nothing but sitting in the car and getting the second hand story from Sam and Dean. I had about 8 different drawings of wendigos, trees and my brothers each and by the time we got to the police station I was ready to do anything else. I glanced making sure Dean and Sam were staying inside. When I was sure they wouldn’t be out for a while, I reached in the front seat and grabbed Dad’s journal. Since I was a kid I wasn’t allowed to touch the journal. If Sam hadn’t told me all about monsters, I’m not even sure my family would’ve told me anything. The journal had everything inside it about my Dad. I flipped through the pages slowly. Wendigos, ghosts, sirens, werewolves, everything. There were even things about my brothers. And about Mary. About me. There was a page from around the time I was born. No entry, just a name, and a number. Susan Adher.  
Mary wasn’t my mom, but I thought of her as one. From what Dean tells me, she would’ve loved me. My own mother left me with my Dad one day and never looked back. I have a feeling I would’ve liked Mary too. I took out my sketchbook and wrote the name and number down. Maybe I could find something about my past.  
I heard Dean and Sam speaking, so I threw the journal back in the front. Sam and Dean were walking down the street with a young brunette. While Dean was talking to her, Sam waved for me to follow them. I hopped out of the car, and stayed a good few feet behind them.  
“Kids are the best, huh?” Dean asked the woman.  
I did my best to cringe silently. We crossed the street, stopping in front of a building that read “Lakefront Motel,”  
“There it is. Like I said, two blocks,”  
“Thanks,” Sam said.  
She turned to Dean. “Must be hard, with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line,” She started walking away. “Enjoy your stay!”  
I giggled as I approached my brothers. “She really likes you,”  
“‘Kids are the best’? You don’t even like kids,”  
“I like Sadie,” Dean defended.  
“Because you’re stuck with me,” I stuck my tongue out.  
“Name three children besides Sadie you even know,”  
Dean stood there for a moment, not naming anything. Sam waved him off and walked into the motel.  
“I’m thinking!” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watched Sam research the drownings over his shoulder. For as long as I can remember it’s how we would work. He was reading news articles about a drowning turning an ice fishing festival (a whole festival for fishing?) and a drowning of a 12 year old girl.  
“So there’s the three drowning victims this year and six more spread out over the past 35 years. Those bodies were never recovered either. If there is something out there, it’s picking up its pace.”  
“So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?” Dean asked.  
“A Loch Ness monster!” I said.  
Sam shook his head. “This whole lake monster theory, it just bugs me.”  
Dean came over next to me and read the article as well, “Why?”  
“Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing. Whatever it is out there, no one’s living to talk about it.”  
Sam kept scrolling through when Dean pointed something out.  
“Wait, Barr, Christopher Barr .Where have I heard that name before?”  
“Christopher Barr, the victim in May.” Sam loaded a page with a little boy being taken from the lake by policemen.  
“Christopher Barr was Andrea’s husband-” Sam started.  
“Was Andrea the woman who owned you early?” I asked Dean  
“Shut up,”  
“Apparently, he took Lucas out swimming,” Sam continued reading. “Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. Two hours before the kid got rescued.” Sam glanced back at us. “Maybe we have an eyewitness after all.”  
“No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn’t something you just get over.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean told me things about the day Mary died. We were always really close, even more after Sam left. He told me about how he had to carry Sam out of the house. How the fire burned around him. And my Dad turned more vengeful that day. He used to tell me stories of what things used to be like before everything went bad. Sometimes I wish I could’ve met that dad.  
We drove to the park where the cute girl Andrea and her son were. She sat on the edge of the park watching a boy, who I assumed was Lucas coloring alone in the middle of all the other screaming kids.  
“Can we join you?” Sam asked.  
Andrea looked up at the three of us.  
She pointed to Lucas. “I’m here with my son.”  
“Sadie,” Dean said to me, “Why don’t you go say hi?”  
I could tell Dean was pushing me to get information in the less suspicious way possible. I gave him a helpless glance as I walked over to Lucas. I wasn’t very good at socializing with people my age. I had only really ever been around my family.  
Lucas was sitting on a bench with a pad of paper and crayons. He was surrounded by tiny soldier toys. He might have been younger than me by a year or two, I wasn’t sure. His hair was only a bit shorter than mine and was nearly covering his eyes.  
I sat across from him. “Um, hi.”  
He didn’t look up at me.  
“I’m Sadie. My brothers are talking to your mom and she said I can come say hi.” I watched as drew purple lines on a piece of paper. I glanced over to some other drawings he already did. One was just a whirlpool of black lines and another of a red bicycle. “Cool drawings. I do art too. They aren’t the best but it’s relaxing.”  
I glanced at a stack of papers next to him. “I hope you don’t mind if I borrow a sheet, I left my stuff in my brother’s car.” I picked up the extra pad and one of the crayons. I started drawing.  
“I heard about what happened to your dad. I’m sorry. I get it, though. A lot of bad things have happened to my family. To me. I’ve seen a lot of bad things. Sometimes… I don’t want to talk either. There’s a lot of crazy things out there, but my brothers and I can help. Maybe you could show me what it was?”  
Lucas still didn’t look at me.  
“Um. I better get going before my brother’s get impatient.” I glanced down at my drawing. “Um. Here. You can keep it since I did use your paper and crayons. It’s my brothers and me. I’m the cool one in the middle.” I placed it down. “I’ll see you later,”  
I got up and walked over to my brothers.  
“Lucas hasn’t said a word, not even to me. Not since his dad’s accident,” Andrea was saying.  
“Yeah, we heard. Sorry.” Dean glanced down at me with a questioning look as I approached.  
I shook my head.  
“What are the doctors saying?” Sam asked.  
“That it’s a kind of post-traumatic stress.”  
“That can’t be easy. For either of you.”  
“We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot. It’s just… when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw…” She paused.  
“Kids are strong. You’d be surprised what they can deal with.” Dean put a hand on my shoulder.  
“You know, he used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth. Now he just sits there. Drawing those pictures, playing with those army me-”  
She paused as Lucas was walking up to us. “Hey, sweetie.” Andrea said.  
Without looking up, Lucas handed me a piece of paper.  
I took it. “Thanks, Lucas.” I looked down at it. It was a picture of a house. Before I could say anything more, he walked away, back to his bench. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stared at the drawing for a while once we got back to the motel room. Lucas seemed nice. I felt bad for him. Dean noticed me staring.  
“What’s up kid? You’ve been staring at that all morning. You got a crush?” He smirked.  
I scoffed. “No. It’s just… not fair. He just seemed so lost.”  
“Reminds me of someone,” Dean look directly at me.  
“What?”  
“You know, you look like him when you draw too. Like you’re in your own world.” Dean paused. “Sadie, whatever happened in California I can-”  
Sam busted through the door, interrupting the conversation, Dean shot me a ‘we’ll talk about this later look,”.  
“I think it’s safe to say we can rule out Nessie,” Sam said.  
“What do you mean?” Dean asked.  
“I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead.”  
“He drowned?”  
“Yep. In the sink,”  
“What the hell? So you’re right this isn’t a creature. We’re dealing with something else,”  
“Like what?” I asked. “A water wraith?”  
Dean gave me a look. “How do you know what a water wraith is?”  
I remembered the passage from my Dad’s journal. I shrugged. “Um… lucky guess? We need something that controls water, right?”  
“The lake,”  
I nodded.  
“Which would explain why it’s upping the body count. The lake is draining. It’ll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it’s running out of time.”  
“And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone, almost anywhere,”  
I nervously glanced into our bathroom.  
“This is gonna happen again soon.”  
“And we do know one other thing for sure. We know this has got something to do with Bill Carlton,” Sam pointed out.  
“Yeah, it took both his kids,”  
“And I’ve been asking around. Lucas’s dad, Chris- Bill Carlton’s godson.”  
Dean stood up. “Let’s go pay Mr. Carlton a visit.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watched as the two of them walked out onto the lake where Mr. Carlton was sitting. He was out in front of the lake. All things considered, I thought it was a little odd. But I guess he didn’t know what he had to be afraid of. I looked back at his house near by, thinking I could break in for information while they were busy but I froze. Eyes on the house, I pulled out the picture Lucas drew. It was the Carlton house.  
I heard the Impala doors open.  
“Aw, I think the poor guy’s been through hell. I also think he’s not telling us something,” Dean was saying.  
“Guys? Take a look at this,” I held the drawing up to the real Carlton house.  
“Huh.” Dean said. “Maybe Bill’s not the only one who knows something. Good work, Sadie.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Andrea said.  
I sighed, pocketing the drawing Lucas drew me.  
“She just needs 5 minutes,” Dean said.  
“He won’t say anything. What good’s it gonna do?”  
“Andrea, we think more people might get hurt. We think something’s happening out there,”  
“My husband, the others, they just drowned. That’s all,”  
“If that’s what you really believe, then we’ll go. But if you think there’s even a possibility that something else could be going on here, please let my sister talk to your son,” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Lucas’s room was everything I had wanted in a bedroom. He had a lava lamp glowing on the dresser, a skateboard in the corner. Lucas sat in the middle of the room drawing with the army men. In another timeline, we could’ve been friends. I looked at the drawing in my hand. Maybe we already were.  
I sat on the floor next to Lucas. “Hey. It’s me again. From the park.” I noticed he had drawn more pictures of the bike. “The drawing you showed me really helped out my brothers. I’m sorry we couldn’t do more.” I put the drawing down. “You knew, didn’t you?”  
Lucas kept drawing.  
“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me. I know what it’s like. You just… have all this stuff and don’t know what to do with it.” I paused, glancing back to Sam and Dean standing at the bedroom door, “I saw something bad, too. In a dream. I’ve never really had friends to talk about it with, but we’re friends. I know it’s scary, alone, but maybe together, we can help each other. We can help each other be brave.”  
Lucas dropped his crayon and looked at me. He looked tired. He gave me a picture of a church and a yellow house with the same red bike parked outside.  
I took it, “Thanks, Lucas. Maybe after this is all done, we can hang out again,” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam held on to the picture while Dean drove. I leaned forward to better listen to the conversation.  
“Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died,” Dean said.  
“There are cases- going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies,”  
Dean glanced back at me. “Is that what you were talking to Lucas about?”  
I tried to play dumb. “Huh? I was just…. Talking,”  
“If there’s something bothering you-”  
“It’s nothing, Dean. Let’s just focus on the house.”  
“Yeah, there’s about a thousand yellow two story houses in this county alone,”  
Sam pointed to the church, “I bet there’s less than a thousand of those around,”  
“College Boy thinks he’s so smart,”  
Sam shuffled for a moment and looked back at me. “What you said, Sadie, to Lucas, you never said anything about it to me,”  
“It’s nothing. I was just talking about the bad things we see on the road. Nothing else,”  
Sam kept watching me the rest of the way. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It didn’t take us long to find the church and the house. The house belonged to a nice looking old woman.  
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am but does a little boy live here, by chance? He might wear a blue ball cap ,has a red bicycle.”  
She got very sad, “No sir, not for a very long time. Peter’s been gone for 35 years now.” She turned to a picture of a young boy on her mantle. “The police never- I never had any idea what happened. He just disappeared,”  
Sam pointed out a number of toy soldiers on the side table near the couch.  
“Losing him- you know, it’s…. It’s worse than dying,”  
Dean put a hand on my shoulder. “Did he disappear from here? I mean, from this house?”  
“He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, and he never showed up,”  
Dean picked a picture off of the mantle. It had Peter with his red bicycle. He turned it over. “Peter Sweeney and Billy Carlton,” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tapped my foot nervously as we made our way back to the Carlton house. There were only so many reasons why a spirit would target someone.  
“Okay,” Sam was saying, “this little boy Peter Sweeney vanishes, and this is all connected to Bill Carlton somehow,”  
“Yeah, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?”  
“Everyone he loves is dying,” I added.  
“So what if Bill did something to Peter?” Dean suggested.  
“What if Bill killed him?”  
“Peter’s spirit would be furious. It’d want revenge. It’s possible,”  
We pulled up to the Carlton house. I watched the boys walk around the outside of the house, calling for him. I noticed Dean looking toward the lake, so I popped my head out the window and looked out. Mr. Carlton was driving out on his boat, going out onto the lake. They ran out after him, screaming for him to turn around. He didn’t. He sped of until his boat flew into the air and flipped over. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had to call the sheriff down to report the body. He treated us… coldly. I was suspicious as we followed him back to the police station. Andrea and Lucas were waiting there. She had a take out bag with her and Lucas was rocking back in forth in his seat. I did the same thing when I was nervous.  
“Sam, Dean, Sadie,” Andrea said to us, surprised. “I didn’t expect to see you here,”  
“So now you’re on a first-name basis,” The sheriff scoffed. “What are you doing here?”  
She held the bag up. “I brought you dinner,”  
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I don’t really have the time,”  
“I heard about Bill Carlton. Is it true? Is something going on with the lake?”  
“Right now we don’t know what the truth is. But I think it might be better if you and Lucas went home,”  
Lucas jumped up and pulled at my arm. He wanted me to go with him. I could tell, something was scaring him. Dean and Andrea immanently went to both of us, trying to separate us. I whispered to Lucas, “It’s okay, we know what it is,”  
He didn’t look happy about letting us go, but Andrea was able to pull him away. Dean kept an arm on my shoulder, giving Lucas a questioning look. He noticed something was wrong too.  
Lucas watched us as Andrea took him out of the station. Dean and I watched until they were out of sight. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had to wait outside while Sam and Dean went into the sheriff’s office. I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that happened. How someone could just kill another person and move on with their life? And Lucas was so afraid of it. It controlled him.  
Dean and Sam came out in a hurry.  
“Come on,” Dean said waving me out the door.  
“Why? What’s going on?”  
“The sheriff knows we’re fake. We gotta go,”  
“But, Dean we can’t!”  
“It’s either that or prison and jumpsuits are not my thing,”  
I followed my brothers into the Impala. “But what about Peter?”  
“It’s over, Sadie,” Sam said. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We drove out of town, despite my protests. I still felt something was wrong, and by the way Dean was driving, I could tell he felt it too. He stopped a green light.  
“Green,” Sam said.  
“What?” Dean asked, coming out of a deep thought.  
“Light’s green,”  
Dean turned the car back towards town.  
“Interstate’s the other way,” Sam pointed out.  
“I know,”  
I smiled.  
“Guys, this job, I think it’s over,” Sam was arguing.  
“I’m not so sure.” Dean said.  
“If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter’s spirit got its revenge, case closed.”  
“So what if we take off and this thing isn’t done? You know, what if we’ve missed something? What if more people get hurt?”  
“But why would you think that?”  
Dean looked back at me in the rear view mirror. “Lucas was scared,”  
Sam looked between the two of us. “That’s what this is about,”  
“I just don’t want to leave this town until I know the kid’s okay,”  
“Agreed,” I said.  
“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”  
“Shut up.” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We pulled up to Andrea’s house pretty late at night.  
“What if no one answers?” I said.  
Dean rang the doorbell anyway. His finger was barely on the button before Lucas pulled the door open. He was breathing heavily, panic in his eyes.  
“Lucas? Lucas!” Dean called as he ran into the house and up the stairs. Dirty water ran down the steps. Lucas banged on the bathroom.  
Dean pulled him away as Sam came in and kicked it down in one sweep. He ran in and started pulling Andrea from the water. I could hear him struggling against the water as Dean held Lucas and I back. Finally, I heard her gasping for air as Sam pulled her from the bathtub. She was alive.  
We stayed until morning. Sam had been trying to talk Andrea about what happened. I just stayed with Lucas. Dean was off searching the house.  
“Can you tell me?” Sam was saying to her.  
“No. It doesn’t make any sense.” I could hear her begin to cry. “I’m going crazy,”  
“No, you’re not. Tell me what happened. Everything.”  
“I thought I heard…there was this voice,”  
“What did it say.”  
“It said- it said ‘come play with me’.” She sobbed. “What’s happening?”  
I stared out at the lake. It was beautiful. And yet so many people died. It almost wasn’t fair.  
Dean came in with a scrapbook, showing a page to Andrea. I caught a glance of it; it was filled with boy scouts. “Do you recognize the kids in these pictures,” Dean asked.  
“What? Um, no, except that’s my dad right there. He must have been, um, 12, when these pictures were taken.”  
Dean sighed. “Chris Barr’s drowning. The connection wasn’t to Bill Carlton. It must have been to sheriff.”  
“Bill and the sheriff. They both must have been involved with Peter,”  
Lucas stood up and walked to the window. I followed. He was staring into the yard, near the woods.  
“Lucas?” I heard Dean call. “Lucas what is it?”  
Lucas opened the back door and walked out. I kept following him, glancing back to my brothers.  
He walked into the woods, the four of us following him. He didn’t go far before stopping in front of a patch of moss. Lucas looked at me.  
Dean turned to Andrea. “You and Lucas get back to the house and stay there, okay? Sadie go with them,”  
“But-”  
“Make sure nothing happens.” He said to me.  
I reluctantly nodded. “Fine. What are you going to do?”  
“Find out what’s under here,” 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrea lead us back inside. We watched from the window as the boys dug into the ground. It took a while, but eventually I noticed they pulled something out of the dirt.  
“Is that a bike?” Andrea asked.  
Before I could explain, a person came out from the tree line. It was the sheriff holding a gun.  
“Oh my god,” Andrea said, heading toward the door. “Go upstairs, both of you. Lock the door and wait for me. Don’t come out,” She said, running out.  
She sent us off, but neither of us wanted to stop watching. I could see my brothers trying to talk him down, and Andrea running up to them. Lucas opened the door quietly.  
“Lucas,” I whispered. “What are you doing?”  
He knelt down behind some pots and waved from me to join him. I could better hear what was happening.  
“Listen to yourselves, both of you. You’re insane,” The sheriff was saying.  
“I don’t really give a rat’s ass what you think of us. But if we’re gonna bring down this spirit, we need to find the remains, salt them, and burn them into dust. Now tell me you buried Peter somewhere. Tell me you didn’t just let him go into the lake,”  
“Come play with me,” A voice said behind us.  
We both turned. Lucas ran away off down a path.  
“Lucas,” I whispered. He was gone. “Dammit,”  
I snuck away and followed Lucas down the path. By the time I caught up to him, I could see him on one of the docks, reaching into the water.  
“Lucas!” I heard someone yell. I turned. The adults were running toward us.  
“Sadie, get back!” Dean yelled.  
The voice was getting louder. “Come play with me.”  
It pulled Lucas into the water.  
“Sadie, no!” Sam yelled.  
I jumped in. The water was cold and dark. I swam around looking for him. I could see Lucas just out of sight, I reached out, and something cold grabbed my ankle. I screamed as I got dragged in.  
Someone called my name, but under the water, everything was silent. I could see a little boy pulling me down. Everything went dark. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pain shot up my back. Someone had hit me. Water spewed out of my lungs and I coughed.  
“Sadie, can you hear me?”  
Sam.  
I opened my eyes, and looked up. Sam was there, his clothes all wet.  
“What…. What happened?” I asked. “Where’s…. Lucas.” I coughed.  
“Lucas is okay. The sheriff sacrificed himself. He’s dead. He saved you and Lucas,”  
“I’m sorry, I should’ve kept a closer eye o-” I started.  
“It’s not your fault. We can’t save everybody,”  
I nodded, unsure if that made me feel better. I stood up, and was tackled in another hug. Someone else who was also soaking wet.  
“Dean, you’re crushing me,”  
“Never do that again,” He told me.  
I nodded, knowing he would lock me away in a plastic bubble if I said anything else right now.  
When we were sure Andrea and Lucas were okay, we went back to the motel. The job was over and it was time to leave. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we put our final bag in the car, a voice called out from down the street, “Sam, Dean, Sadie!”  
I looked up. It was Andrea and Lucas. Lucas had a big plate in his arms.  
“I’m glad we caught you.” Andrea said as she walked up to us. “We made you lunch for the road. Lucas insisted on making the sandwiches himself.”  
“Can I give it to them now?” Lucas asked.  
“Of course.”  
“You can help us get them in the car.” I said. “Dean’s kind of an erratic driver so we have to secure them somewhere safe.”  
Lucas smiled at me and followed me to the back of the car. Dean did too, saying, “I am not erratic!”  
“Uh huh. Tell that to all my spilled drinks in the back seat.”  
“Maybe you’re just clumsy,”  
I stuck my tongue out at him.  
I opened the door to the backseat and said to Lucas, “This is where I’m forced to sit. We can buckle the sandwiches in,”  
“So you can eat them all while we’re in the front,” Dean added quietly.  
We ignored him and Lucas held the plate in while I lead the seat belt over it.  
“I think it should stay,” Lucas said.  
I smiled. “Me too,”  
“All right, if you’re gonna be talking now, this is a very important phrase, Sadie take notes: Zeppelin rules. Okay? Repeat it back to me so I know you get it,”  
“Zeppelin rules!” Lucas repeated with a lot of enthusiasm.  
“Sadie,”  
“Zeppelin rules!” I repeated with a little less enthusiasm.  
“That’s right. Up high.”  
We both gave Dean a high five.  
“You take care of your mom okay?”  
“All right,”  
While Andrea give Dean a very friendly goodbye, I turned to Lucas.  
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said. “I’m sorry… we couldn’t save more people,”  
“Thank you,” Lucas said. He took a step forward and gave me a hug. For a moment, I was taken aback, but I squeezed back and said, “Good luck, Lucas.”  
“Sam, Sadie, move those asses. We’re gonna run out of daylight before we hit the road.”  
We pulled away, and I waved goodbye as I got in the car. Dean put on Bad Company as we drove away. I smiled as Andrea and Lucas watched us drive away.  
“Only 11 and already breaking hearts,” Dean commented.  
“Shut up. The same thing could be said for you.”  
Dean paused. “Shut up,”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks coming around everyone!


End file.
